Stephanie Smith: Seniors’ home support to improve after 20 years of decline

Health Minister Adrian Dix chats with seniors at Collingwood Neighbourhood House where he joined the B.C. seniors advocate, Isobel Mackenzie, for an announcement on increasing support for those caring for aging loved ones.Arlen Redekop / PNG

OPINION: Seniors, their families and community healthcare workers have been left to struggle within an increasingly fragmented home support system

After a lifetime of working, paying taxes, raising families and making countless contributions to society, less than 60 minutes a day is all we are giving back to most B.C. seniors requiring support to live at home. It’s shameful, and a problem that weighs heavily on the minds of many as the province’s population aged 65 and older expands rapidly. But the seniors’ home support system wasn’t always this way.

The serious decline of the sector began in the early 2000s under the then newly elected B.C. Liberals. They passed new healthcare laws that paved the way for increased privatization as well as contract-flipping, which typically involves mass layoffs or forcing employees to reapply for jobs they already have. These dramatic changes were rushed through the legislative process and sold to the public as a way to “increase flexibility” and enable more “cost-effective and efficient ways” of delivering services. The new laws also weakened the rights of unionized workers and more than 9,000 experienced healthcare professionals — mostly women — were laid off so that companies could get away with paying lower wages. In turn, low pay and diminished labour rights led to the erosion of working conditions as well as chronic issues with recruitment and retention.

Seniors, their families and community healthcare workers were left to struggle within an increasingly fragmented home support system. Privatization and the push for profit further reduced hours of care and made it difficult for workers to piece together even part-time schedules. Care plans, which outline the services seniors can expect, remained inflexible, resulting in situations where meal preparation is limited to taking a wrapper off a sandwich — to say nothing of how frail seniors ensure food is in the house or the dishes are washed. Too many times I’ve seen our members fight back tears describing the heartbreak of having to leave struggling seniors to fend for themselves because client visits are all too brief.

Health Minister Adrian Dix and Anne Kang, parliamentary secretary for seniors, discuss seniors’ services at the Louis Brier Home and Hospital in Vancouver back in March. The NDP government has committed to home support as a public rather than privatized service.Francis Georgian /
PNG

But now, there is hope. As a result of the provincial government’s decision to bring home support services back into the Fraser, Vancouver Coastal and Vancouver Island Health Authorities, we can begin putting the pieces back together and create an integrated and better co-ordinated system. That’s because a public service delivery model will reduce redundant administrative costs, facilitate a team-based multidisciplinary approach to care, and create more stable working conditions for care professionals.

For seniors this means getting the help they need from a team of care professionals. This shift is already underway in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island where two transitions are in process and community teams are being created. In the longer term this will result in better continuity of care, and the ability for more seniors to age in place, at home.

Those who have profited from privatized services, and hoped to make millions more as demand swells, are unsurprisingly opposed to the transition to government. But with myriad reports and gloomy statistics piling up about a sector in crisis, family members in distress as they attempt to fill in the gaps, and workers sounding the alarm year after year — our government has listened.

There is a mess to clean up, but for the first time in 20 years I am hopeful for the future of home support. Let’s take a moment to celebrate finally turning this corner, and look forward to a modernized and holistic system that truly serves the needs of people. We owe it to the workers on the front lines and to seniors, who deserve to be treated with respect and age in dignity.

Stephanie Smith is the president of the B.C. Government & Service Employees’ Union, which represents 6,000 home support workers across B.C., approximately 3,500 of whom will be transitioned to the health authorities.

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